Featuring 230 Industry-First Reviews of Fiction, Nonfiction, Children'sand YA books KIRKUSVOL. LXXXVIII, NO. 19 | 1 OCTOBER 2020 REVIEWS READ ABOUT THE FINALISTS FOR THE 2020 Kirkus Prizes ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: Rumaan Alam, John Birdsall, Remy Lai, and more from the editor’s desk: New Year’s Reading Resolutions Chairman BY TOM BEER HERBERT SIMON President & Publisher MARC WINKELMAN John Paraskevas It sometimes seems as though nothing has happened as planned this year. # So it’s extra reassuring to present this annual Kirkus Prize issue of the maga- Chief Executive Officer MEG LABORDE KUEHN zine in which we introduce the finalists for our 2020 awards in fiction, nonfic- [email protected] tion, and young readers’ literature. Yes—the judges have been busy reading all Editor-in-Chief TOM BEER through the pandemic, and the Kirkus Prize is happening. Here’s the com- [email protected] plete list of 18 finalists; turn to the editors’ columns to learn more about each Vice President of Marketing SARAH KALINA of the books listed here. [email protected] Managing/Nonfiction Editor FICTION: ERIC LIEBETRAU Black Sunday by Tola Rotimi Abraham (Catapult) [email protected] Fiction Editor Fiebre Tropical by Juli Delgado Lopera (Feminist Press) LAURIE MUCHNICK Tom Beer The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante, translated by Ann Goldstein (Europa [email protected] Young Readers’ Editor Editions) VICKY SMITH Luster by Raven Leilani (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) [email protected] Young Readers’ Editor Deacon King Kong by James McBride (Riverhead) LAURA SIMEON Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart (Grove) [email protected] Editor at Large The judges for the 2020 Kirkus Prize in Fiction are: bestselling author Chang-rae Lee, editor and MEGAN LABRISE [email protected] writer Amy Reiter, and Veronica Santiago Liu, founder and general coordinator of Word Up Com- Vice President of Kirkus Indie munity Bookshop/Librería Comunitaria. KAREN SCHECHNER [email protected] Senior Indie Editor NONFICTION: DAVID RAPP A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America’s Hurricanes by Eric Jay Dolin (Liveright/ [email protected] Indie Editor Norton) MYRA FORSBERG Fathoms: The World in the Whale by Rebecca Giggs (Simon & Schuster) [email protected] by Deirdre Mask Associate Manager of Indie The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power KATERINA PAPPAS (St. Martin’s) [email protected] by Aimee Nezhukumatathil Editorial Assistant World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments JOHANNA ZWIRNER (Milkweed) [email protected] by Mychal Denzel Smith (Bold Type Books) Mysteries Editor Stakes Is High: Life After the American Dream THOMAS LEITCH Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson (Random House) Contributing Editor GREGORY McNAMEE The judges for the 2020 Kirkus Prize in Nonfiction are: 2018 Kirkus Prize finalist Kiese Laymon, Copy Editor critic Erika Rohrbach, and Nick Buzanski, general manager at Books Are Magic. BETSY JUDKINS Designer YOUNG READERS’ LITERATURE: ALEX HEAD Kirkus Editorial Production Editor Picture Books: ROBIN O’DELL I Am Every Good Thing by Derrick Barnes, illustrated by Gordon C. James (Nancy Paulsen Books) [email protected] by Carole Lindstrom, illustrated by Michaela Goade (Roaring Brook) Kirkus Editorial Associate We Are Water Protectors Production Editor STEPHANIE SUMMERHAYS Middle Grade: [email protected] Fighting Words by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley (Dial Books) Website and Software Developer PERCY PEREZ The Girl and the Ghost by Hanna Alkaf (Harper/HarperCollins) [email protected] Advertising Director Young Adult: MONIQUE STENSRUD Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo (Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins) [email protected] Stamped From the Advertising Associate Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix of the National Book Award–Winning TATIANA ARNOLD Beginning by Jason Reynolds & Ibram X. Kendi (Little, Brown) [email protected] Graphic Designer The judges for the 2020 Kirkus Prize in Young Readers’ Literature are: No. 1 bestsell- LIANA WALKER New York Times [email protected] ing author Nicola Yoon, critic and author Kyle Lukoff, and children’s and school librarian Roxanne Controller Hsu Feldman. MICHELLE GONZALES [email protected] We’ll be announcing the winners at a virtual ceremony on Nov. 5; please mark your calendars. In the for customer service or subscription questions, meantime, you’ve got a ready-made reading list of 18 outstanding books. Have at them. please call 1-800-316-9361 Print indexes: www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/print-indexes Submission Guidelines: www.kirkusreviews.com/about/submission-guidlines Kirkus Blog: www.kirkusreviews.com/blog Subscriptions: www.kirkusreviews.com/subscription Advertising Opportunities: www.kirkusreviews.com/about/advertising- Newsletters: www.kirkusreviews.com/subscription/newsletter/add Cover design by opportunities Liana Walker 2 | 1 october 2020 | from the editor’s desk | kirkus.com | you can now purchase books online at kirkus.com contents fiction The Kirkus Star is awarded INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ...........................................................4 REVIEWS ...............................................................................................4 to books of remarkable EDITOR’S NOTE.....................................................................................6 merit, as determined by the INTERVIEW: RUMAAN ALAM ........................................................... 14 impartial editors of Kirkus. MYSTERY .............................................................................................28 SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY ..........................................................37 ROMANCE ........................................................................................... 38 nonfiction adult young INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS .........................................................40 REVIEWS .............................................................................................40 EDITOR’S NOTE...................................................................................42 INTERVIEW: JOHN BIRDSALL ........................................................48 children’s INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ..........................................................77 REVIEWS ..............................................................................................77 EDITOR’S NOTE................................................................................... 78 INTERVIEW: REMY LAI ..................................................................... 84 INTERVIEW: MARJORIE AGOSÍN ................................................... 92 young adult INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ........................................................107 REVIEWS ............................................................................................107 EDITOR’S NOTE................................................................................. 108 In his latest book, eminent traveler and naturalist INTERVIEW: YAMILE SAIED MÉNDEZ ..........................................112 David Attenborough delivers a combination indie of memoir and manifesto, the first leisurely, the INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ....................................................... 118 second earnest. Read the review on p. 41 . REVIEWS ........................................................................................... 118 EDITOR’S NOTE................................................................................. 120 Don’t wait on the mail for reviews! You can read pre-publication reviews as they are released on kirkus.com—even before they are published in the magazine. BOOK TO SCREEN ............................................................................ 138 You can also access the current issue and back issues of Kirkus Reviews on our website by logging in as a subscriber. If you do not have a username or password, APPRECIATIONS: RICHARD WRIGHT’S NATIVE SON .................139 please contact customer care to set up your account by calling 1.800.316.9361 or emailing [email protected]. | kirkus.com | contents | 1 october 2020 | 3 fiction These titles earned the Kirkus Star: THE OPIUM PRINCE Aimaq, Jasmine Soho Crime (384 pp.) VALENTINO AND SAGITTARIUS by Natalia Ginzburg; $27.95 | Dec. 1, 2020 trans. by Avril Bardoni ......................................................................... 9 978-1-641-29158-3 THE SLAUGHTERMAN’S DAUGHTER by Yaniv Iczkovits ...............11 A young American diplomat comes PIGEONS ON THE GRASS by Wolfgang Koeppen; face to face with the turmoil of Afghan trans. by Michael Hofmann .................................................................11 society and the anguish of its people in this debut novel by a half-Afghan, half- ACROSS THE GREEN GRASS FIELDS by Seanan McGuire ............18 Swedish writer. While driving from Kabul to Herat THE LAST INTERVIEW by Eshkol Nevo; with his wife, Rebecca, sometime in the late 1970s, Daniel trans. by Sondra Silverston ................................................................. 20 Abdullah Sajadi hits and kills a little girl named Telaya. Dan- iel—whose mother is American and late father was an Afghan ACCRA NOIR ed. by Nana-Ama Danquah ........................................32 War hero—is the new director of a U.S. foreign aid agency, THE MIDNIGHT BARGAIN by C.L. Polk ........................................... 37 charged with fostering food production and wiping out the poppy fields that